GnuPG on Solaris with /dev/random

[Paul Allen]

Greetings!

Solaris has a /dev/random device.  It's provided by the SUNWski
package that's part of the Sun Web Server product that's bundled
with the server versions of at least Solaris 2.6 and 7.  (Not sure
about Solaris 8.)  I'm using the SUNWski from Sun Web Server 2.1,
contained in Solaris 7.  Sun's /dev/random is a FIFO that you can
read endless random bits from.  It works nicely with OpenSSH.
(The complete SUNWski package is also contained in a patch that
one can get from SunSolve, given an appropriate maintenance 
contract.  Search for "SUNWski".)

In configuring gnupg-1.0.1, it seems the way to get /dev/random
support is to say --enable-static-rnd=linux.  When you do that, the
configure script looks for two character special devices, /dev/random
and /dev/urandom.  This check fails and configure concludes that I
don't have /dev/random.  Rigging the script so that it thinks both
files are called "/dev/random" fails because it's not a character
special.

I'm tempted to just fix configure so that it will accept a FIFO 
called "/dev/random" as proper /dev/random support and charge ahead.
Has anybody been here before me and can warn about the hole I'm
about to charge into?  Have I mis-read configure?

If you reply to the list, please cc me.  The GnuPG web page has a
convenient mailto: link for asking questions on the list, but no
information on how one actually subscribes.  :-)

Thanks!

Paul Allen
-- 
Paul L. Allen           | voice: (425) 865-3297  fax: (425) 865-2964
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